TIIE. CO.IB.R Volume XVlII .September-October, 1916 Number MORE BIRD NOTES FROM BIG BEAR VALLEY, SAN BERNARDINO MOUNTAINs .: By WRIGHT M. PIERCE WITH FIVE PHOTOS BY THE AUTHOR HE TIME from June 19 to June 30, 1916, inclusive, was spent in field study by the writer at Big Bear Lake, altitude 6750 feet, in the San Bernardino Mountains, California. Most of the time was taken in work- ing along the south side of the lake and up into the little canyons in that locality. However, trips were made to the east end of Bear Lake and Baldwin Lake, and also to Bluff Lake, 7575 feet altitude. From the some sixty or more species observed, with many nesting records, the following seem to .deserve mention. Colymbus nigricollis californicus. American Eared Grebe. Eared grebes were quite common in many of the little coves and bays, but only two breeding colonies were located on Bear Lake, one of probably forty nests containing from one to eight eggs each in a little bay near the I. S. Ranch found June 22, and another small colony at the east end of Bear Lake, June 26. The nests in the colony near the I. S. Ranch were poorly constructed, almost fiat with scarcely any cup, the eggs usually lying in the water, and the'whole loose mass rather insecurely fastened to the branches of sev- eral fallen pines floating in the water or in the weeds close to the shore. In the water under several of the nests were eggs which had fallen off probably as the birds climbed on their frail nest platforms or left them with undue haste. As many as nine eggs' were found under one nest, and I think it safe to say that at least a hundred eggs in this one colony were lodged on the bottom beneath the nests. As we approached in a boat I saw several of the birds hastily covering their eggs before leaving. This was the main breeding colony on Bear Lake; only a few scattered nests were seen in other places and a small colony of perhaps a dozen nests at the east end of the lake. In striking contrast to the nests of the above colony were the nests in a colony of prob- ably two hundred located at the west end of Baldwin Lake, June 25. Here the nests were well built, with a distinct cup, and raised at least four inches from the water. Hundreds of the old birds with young were swimming about just off-shore. A few
